My Life in France - Softcover

When Julia Child arrived in Paris in 1948, a 'six-foot-two-inch, thirty-six-year-old, rather loud and unserious Californian', she spoke barely a few words of French, and didn't know the first thing about cooking. 'What's a shallot?' she asked her husband Paul, as they waited for their sole meuniere during their very first lunch in France, which she was to describe later as 'the most exciting meal of my life'. As she fell in love with French culture, buying food at local markets, sampling the local bistros and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life began to change forever, and we follow her extraordinary transformation from kitchen ingenue to internationally renowned (and internationally loved) expert in French cuisine. Bursting with Child's adventurous and humorous spirit, "My Life in France" captures post-war Paris with wonderful vividness and charm.

Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California. She worked for the OSS during World War II; afterwards she lived in Paris, studied at the Cordon Bleu and taught cooking with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, with whom she wrote the first volume of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"(1961). From 1963 to 1973 she presented "The French Chef" on American television, and several other television shows and numerous cookbooks followed. She died in 2004. Alex Prud'homme, Paul Child's grandnephew, is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in "The New York Times", "The New Yorker", "Vanity Fair" and "Time". He is the author of "The Cell Game" and the co-author of "Forewarned".